Lo-fi alt-rock group Sukpatch was always a migratory venture. At various times, its three main members all lived in different places, which included Minneapolis for three-and-a-half crucial years during the early ’90s.

During that period, the low cost of living in the Twin Cities attracted a lot of creative young people. Analog recording equipment also was becoming ever cheaper and more portable, as were digital samplers. There was an uptick in sales for home-recording four-track machines, typically used by musicians to make demos. Due to material circumstances, artists started releasing the cassettes as is — notably, Guided by Voices and Sebadoh.

But Sukpatch weren’t folkies or rockers, per se. Their playful grooves signaled parity between rock and other types of music — something a lot of rockers took years to get their heads around (if, indeed, they have). The group collaged hissing tape, off-speed samples of public access television, and occasional stabs at vocals and catchy chord progressions. The music feels very of its time. Sampling outside of hip-hop or dance music was still mostly unproven in the years before mainstream audiences had heard of Beck.

One review in CMJ New Music Monthly, of Sukpatch’s 1996 full-length debut album Haulin’ Grass and Smokin’ Ass made sure to note that no guitars had likely been used in its making—a note that tells you a great deal about how utterly normative guitar rock was on college radio at the time. But Sukpatch’s blurry and unhurried vibe retains a lot of charm—indeed, it may have more now.

That early-’90s vibe pervades Thin Skin Diver, a brimming new compilation of Sukpatch’s work. Even when the band continued into the mid-2000s, the same loose, playful spirit held. Assembled by R&Rchives, a new archival label run by R&R Records (Dijon, Mk.gee), the 19-song collection of rarities tracks a creative zig-zag that eventually led to the group putting out an EP on the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal label.

It’s not surprising that Sukpatch’s Stephen Hermann and Chris Heidman (who still lives locally) initially came to the Twin Cities to get fine-arts MFAs in painting at the University of Minnesota. This music is clearly made by people who know where and what to add, and what to leave blank. We spoke over Zoom shortly after Thin Skin Diver’s release.

How did Sukpatch begin?

Stephen Hermann: We met at Colorado State University in Fort Collins in 1989 in the dorms. We were all in the same dorm—Steven Nereo from Slabco Records, and Steven Cruze, who was in the band with us, as well. Right away, we’re friends and hanging out all together.

Chris Heidman: More specifically, we were all really into the Grateful Dead, because if you were in college in Colorado in 1990, if you weren’t into the Dead, you were not going to have any fun. I had this really bad homemade T-shirt of Jerry Garcia’s head, and it said, “Here Comes Sunshine.” Steve [Hermann] was like, “I like your shirt. Do you have any tapes?” Meaning bootleg tapes. We all bonded around that—and about two weeks into it, we’re like, “The Grateful Dead kind of suck.” Well, they don’t suck, but we kind of got over it.

Steve Nereo made a tape of his own music and called it Son of Slab. And he’s like, “You guys should do a cassette with me.” Eventually, he got a loan from his parents to start printing records and turned it into a label, Slabco. Between us and Land of the Loops and Steve Nereo’s stuff, we were all sort of beat-driven, hip-hop, indie-rock infused.

Who got this compilation going? Was it one of your ideas, or the label?

Chris Heidman: We had been talking about wanting to do something for years now. We were hoping places like Numero [Group might be] doing archival—that would be cool. But we didn’t really put a lot of action behind it. One day I get an email: “Hey, I work for a place called R&R. I’d love to talk about re-releasing some stuff.”

I’m curious about how Minneapolis comes into the picture for the band.

Chris Heidman: We were all in Colorado for undergrad. Steve [Hermann] and I were art-school kids. We started recording some of those early tapes in Colorado, and really wanted to keep it going, so Steve and I both got into the U of M, for their MFA program in painting — this is a good excuse to gather in the same city and keep it rolling. And Steve Cruze was like, “OK, I’ll move there as well.”

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I read in an old interview you did with CMJ New Music Monthly [page 18] that the third time Sukpatch played live in the Twin Cities, the soundman announced to the audience that you needed a drummer. Where did this occur?

Chris Heidman: 7th Street Entry. It was New Band Night. Back then, when you had a sampler, the sound guy never knew how to plug it in to the board, direct. Nobody was doing that—and it kept feeding back in the monitors. Steve was like [to the soundman in the booth], “Hey, you want to fix that?” And [the soundman] gets on the [microphone], and he says, “You want to just wrap up your set now?” And then he said, “You should get a drummer.” [laughs]

The sound guy who totally saved us was Randy Hawkins. He did sound for us one night—like, “Randy, you’re our guy.” Every time we played a show anywhere, he was just the best dude, and really knew how to make it work. He would bring his own rack gear to run the samplers through.

When you listen back to this compilation, what has surprised you about hearing your catalog that way?

Stephen Hermann: When you’re in the middle, you’re not sure how you feel about it. You like making it. You feel good at the moment. Then you just let it disappear in the background. You know, this is 30 years ago. So yeah, I was surprised how it feels like it stands the test of time. There’s plenty of music I made back then that doesn’t, that’s terrible, that I’m embarrassed about, but we kept those songs off the [compilation].

Chris Heidman: Steve [Cruze] is our archivist, so he had most of it. Over the years, he’s like, “I digitized all these Sukpatch tapes.” I’m like, “Why are you wasting your time with that?” [laughs]

How did the band’s gear change over the years?

Chris Heidman: Money. [laughs] You know: What could we afford? [The 1991 EP] That’s Leona’s Business was all done on a borrowed 4-track. There was a time period between Colorado and Minneapolis where we lived in different cities — I’d put a track on the 4-track. I’d mail it to Steve when he was in Seattle. He would [add something and] mail it back to me. I would send it to other Steve, who was in Ohio, and then they’d send it back to me, and I’d mix it. These tapes would travel thousands of miles, purely on four track and [using] whatever we could find at a thrift store.

Stephen Hermann: [Holds up old Tascam] Here you go for visual reference. I can tell you what we were using—a Tascam 424. Chris had a Porta-1 Studio.

Chris Heidman: When we would record stuff [on 4-track], we would just be like, “Wow, this is so good. We don’t need a studio.” We were in love with our sound — I think we were amazed that we could make songs.

In addition to Slabco, Sukpatch also had go-rounds with Sub Pop and with Grand Royal. I’m curious how each of those happened.

Chris Heidman: Slabco was distributed through Up Records, which was a subsidiary of Sub Pop. We were on their radar because of that. We just did the one seven-inch for the Single of the Month Club. It was two singles every month; ours went out with Modest Mouse’s single — we were friends with those guys a bit back then; it was just a one-off with them.

How about Grand Royal, the Beastie Boys’ label?

Chris Heidman: We had some major-label buzz around us after we released our first few 7-inches, and then Haulin’ Grass. Another friend of ours was working at Geffen at the time who wanted to sign us. This didn’t quite work out. But one of the guys from Geffen that was in that meeting room went to Grand Royal. We played CMJ at the Fez, ’97 or ’98, and Mike D came to the show, and in disguise. He’d kind of been following us. The label calls me a week later, saying, “Hey, Mike, liked your show. We want to do a deal. We’re not playing around. We’re going to get a deal done.” I was like, “Oh my god, great.” So, Mike came to town. We played the Entry. It was one of those February nights where it’s 25 below [zero], and he’s woefully underdressed. About six people came to the show. Randy did sound, and it was a great show. People just didn’t come because it was just unbearably cold.

Did Mike D bother to disguise himself that night?

Chris Heidman: No, he didn’t.

Stephen Hermann: We didn’t play live often, even back then, We would play when A&R people were coming to town, or if there’s a new band night. But I think one of our best shows—at least, fun night—was playing with the Cannanes. I remember, Chris, you saw they were playing at the Uptown Bar. And we’re like, “We got to get on that roster.” So, we opened for them, and then we hung out with them and became really good friends with them.

Chris Heidman: Once the Grand Royal thing happened, we started playing [more]. Right before that, we had played Depth Probe. The first year we did it, it was awesome. It couldn’t have been better. What we were doing was kind of fitting in the trip-hop thing going on. The second year we did it, everybody was into jungle beats and gabber.

And the Whole [Music Club]: I remember we played that show David Anderle, who’s a legendary A&R guy from A&M. He’d signed the Doors and the Beach Boys. We did have dinner with him before, and he was super cool. And Steve here was like, “Who’s this guy? I don’t know A&M Records.” And he just said to him, “We have this cool cassette label thing going. What can you really do for us?” I’m just like, “Oh no.” But that year, he came to the Depth Probe. Like I said, everybody wanted to hear jungle beats, so we kind of fell flat. Everybody was like, “I don’t know if I get this anymore.”

There was a recording that Steve Nereo has somewhere: our first seven-inch, “Cabo San Lucas,” we mailed it to Radio One, and John Peel played it, and we had a recording of him talking about us, and that was just like, “Oh, damn. We’ve made it.”

A rare Sukpatch music video for the song “Out the Window” off the band’s final album, Twenty-Three, released in 2006 on Moshi Moshi Records.

How did the vocalist, Tara, get involved for 1992’s Lite Hits?

Chris Heidman: We did our first tape with Slabco. We started recording another one, and when we got to the end of it, Steve Cruze and I were both like, “I don’t even like this.” There was a different female singer — Corin. It was good, actually — but at the time, we were like, “This isn’t quite right.”

Steve had met Tara in Ohio—[actually] over in Newport, Kentucky, right over the river [from] Cincinnati. That’s where all the hipsters live. He recorded “Carmine” with her and sent it to us. And Steven and I lost our minds “Who is this singer? Why does it sound like that?” He’s like, “Oh, you turn the pitch control on the four track all the way down. And then after she records, you turn it up and it makes her sound like that.” And we were like, “We have to do this.” We recorded Lite Hits in six weeks, sending tapes through the mail. And then we moved [to Minnesota] and she did not. So that was Tara — it was a three-to-five-month period where she was in our lives. She’s still around.

Has she weighed in on the compilation?

Chris Heidman: Yeah, she loves it. She’s so excited.

Thin Skin Diver is out now on all digital platforms.